But it wasn’t enough to see any of the fast men dropped out the back of the main bunch, with the likes of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Elia Viviani (Team Sky), as well as Gaviria and Ewan, present in the finale.

It looked like the young Colombian Gaviria had gone too early as the bunch passed round the final left hand bend to the line, but he was able sustain his power as Australian rival Ewan made his move up the right in his low trademark style.

There was nothing he could do to overcome Gaviria though, as the Etixx man rolled across the line half a bike length ahead, with an even bigger gap on some more seasoned sprinters behind.

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The day’s main break, which had initially included Giorgio Cecchinel (Androni), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani), Davide Villella (Cannondale), Domingos Gonçalves (Caja Rural) and Adrian Honkisz (CCC Sprandi), built up a maximum gap of around 4-30 on the peloton.

But the gap began to tumble in the final 50km, and as Andreetta dropped back to the bunch, the four remaining riders fought to hold on.

And it looked like they might do it as they held over 30 second with around 5km remaining, and were only caught as they hit the uphill drag at around 200m to go.

In the end it was a sprinter’s day, and Gaviria took his chance to get a first WorldTour win.